Conventionally loom reeds comprise a frame having generally wire form members or dents extending between longitudinal members of the frame. Conventionally, the dents are attached at their ends to the longitudinal frame members in a permanent or semi-permanent manner and the spacing between dents is fixed for the particular reed. If it is desired to change or vary the dent spacing, it is necessary to disassemble the entire reed which is highly inconvenient, time consuming and difficult. Accordingly, many weavers maintain an inventory of reeds in which the dent spacing varies from reed to reed for different size yarns and to accommodate textiles of different tightness. Occasionally, it becomes necessary to replace a dent due to wear and tear. In such a case a conventional reed must be disassembled in order to remove and replace the worn or broken dent.
More recently, fashions in textiles have changed and textiles having beads and other similar decorative articles woven into the fabric of the textile are in demand as well as textiles having different size yarn in the same fabric. To weave such textiles it is necessary that the reed be provided with non-uniform dent spacing. That is to say one or more large dent spaces are distributed on the reed to accommodate the large warp yarn or yarns carrying beads or other similar items to be woven into the textile fabric. In such cases it is advantageous to be able to conveniently change the dent spacings as required without having to utilize a different reed and to disturb the loom setup as would be required to change a conventional reed.
Reeds designed for the replacement of worn or broken dents are known in the prior art, such as for example: U.S. Pat. No. 9,544,512 issued Apr. 12, 1910 to J. G. Gourdeau; German Patent 4,9011, Shepinsky, issued Apr. 28, 1889; British Patent 618,291, Hartley et al, accepted Feb. 18, 1949; British Patent 3,734, Carothers, published 1884. Reeds of this design, however, are inconvenient to use even though the dents are removable from the frame member because the dents are not individually removable and it is necessary to disassemble a substantial portion of the reed in order to remove or replace dents or to move dents in order to vary the dent spacing.
In U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 07/173,820 filed Mar. 28, 1988, Anderson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,131 there is disclosed an improved reed having dents which are individually removable. The device described therein overcomes the disadvantages of the aforementioned conventional reed designs. However, reeds constructed in accordance with this application require the use of individual spacer members between the individual dents to maintain the dents in position and provide the desired dent spacing. The dents and spacers are clamped together on the transverse members of the frame by the clamping action of removable end members which are carried by the transverse members of the reed frame and which complete the reed frame assembly.